Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Kitchen — a fast-casual, nutrition-focused California chain from the actress’s lifestyle brand of the same name — will touch down this summer in a New York City food scene more dominated by the allure of health and wellness than ever.
The new dining concept is set to open at 29 E. 20th St., first offering delivery and takeout for dishes like salads, bowls and bento boxes. Some of Goop Kitchen’s viral menu items include the chicken caesar wrap ($16.95, in Los Angeles) and “Pepperoni Potts” pizza ($22.95) — a nod to Paltrow’s role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — both of which adhere to the Goop Certified Clean standards: “no refined sugars, processed foods, gluten, dairy, seed oils, corn, peanuts or preservatives.” The menu is designed by chef Kim Floresca, an alum of fine dining powerhouses including Per Se in Columbus Circle.
The Flatiron restaurant marks its first East Coast establishment and joins over a dozen California locations of the chain, which plans to later open additional New York locations. Goop Kitchen is, in fact, the titular lifestyle brand’s biggest moneymaker — but its story is one of both of popular success and controversy, false advertisements and even medical misinformation.
Goop’s wellness products have been under the fire of several lawsuits since the brand’s founding in 2008. It paid $145,000 in civil penalties following a 2018 lawsuit over unsubstantiated claims that its jade and rose quartz vaginal eggs could balance hormones, increase bladder control, and regulate menstrual cycles. Other products mentioned in the lawsuit included the “Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend” advertised to prevent depression, a claim regulators said lacked scientific evidence.
Over the years, experts have continued to condemn Paltrow for promoting unscientific holistic therapies. Goop also previously endorsed stickers that claimed to ease anxiety and pain and improve focus and sleep, alleging that the products were made from the same conductive carbon material used to line NASA spacesuits — a claim the agency quickly debunked.
Despite the company’s long history of health fads and misinformation, many consumers speak highly of Goop Kitchen’s existing locations on social media. Its upcoming New York City opening has been largely met with excitement, with many fixating on the promise of convenient, yet clean meals.
For many, even if subconsciously, part of the appeal of clean eating is its symbolization of wealth — an association with luxury that fuels today’s $2 trillion wellness industry. Subscribing to a wellness agenda grows beyond achieving peak physical health: It encourages consumers, largely women, to hyperfixate on the habits and products that can help them become a more perfect, pure and aesthetic version of themselves.
As such, Goop’s foray into the food industry makes use of consumers’ willingness to buy into the appearance of health. Goop Kitchen offers menu items — like Chef Kim’s Magic Mineral Broth and the Everyday Kale and Brussels Salad — that match an idealistic health-conscious lifestyle. It breeds eagerness in a wellness hub like New York City, where that same culture already promotes expensive grocery shopping, boutique fitness classes and luxury therapeutic services.
Though Goop Kitchen doesn’t explicitly market its meals as medical solutions, the language employed by its menu conveys implicit promises of better wellbeing — and while its food is indeed healthy, the marketing is unsurprising for a brand known to blur the lines between proven habits and health fads. The chain enters a restaurant scene increasingly saturated with health connotations in an already wellness-obsessed city, and New Yorkers are ready for it.
Contact Yael Grosman at [email protected].